So you’ve decided to start a business?

Starting a new business can be daunting, and there are a number of things that you need to consider as it is a sad fact that many start-up businesses are not around after three years. This is usually due to the founders getting frustrated and giving up, or because they have ran out of money.

If you are planning on starting a business – here are some things to think about.

  • Is your business idea viable?

  • How long can you realistically survive if your business makes little, or no, money?

  • Is anyone else doing the same sort of business?

  • If someone else is doing it, how are they performing? Are they growing?

  • Even once established, can you business earn you the type of income you want and need?

  • What are the start-up costs and where will you get the money from?

  • Do you know how you get customers once you launch?

  • Are there any legal considerations?

What sort of help might improve my chances of success?

There are many forms of help available, depending on your budget. New businesses are usually time rich / cash poor, which means they have the time to learn and implement things themselves but not a lot of money to spend on professional help.

If you are cash rich / time poor then you can afford to outsource and pay people to deliver certain tasks on your behalf.

Unfortunately if you are cash poor / time poor, then it is going to be near impossible to get your business off the ground.

Business Start-up Help for your Budget

No budget

If you have literally no budget at all, then you’re going to be reliant on the advice given in free blog posts, YouTube videos and attending free events.

While these are free, you are likely to find that they consume a great deal of your time and are less effective that paid advice, because you cannot reliably trust the quality of the advice being given, and free resources are often padded out with many upsells. The precise information you are looking for will be embedded amongst a lot of other content, which could mean trawling hours of YouTube videos to find the 30 seconds of information you need!

But if you have no budget, then this may be your only choice.

A little bit of budget (£100-500)

You can do a lot with a little bit of budget, and if you fall into this category, The Small Business Academy was formed for people like you. We created this business to help people who had a little bit of money, and needed to squeeze as much value out of it as possible. You don’t have much – you don’t want to waste it. You don’t want to gamble your last £100 on a course, only to find its a load of rubbish.

That’s why our Courses come with monthly LIVE 1 hour surgeries (this is where our founder, Nikki, comes online for an hour and you can ask any questions you have, share your screen, ask for contacts, help, advice, opinion – anything! and its included in your course fee!)

Other options might include Mentoring, where you can ask someone for all the answers instead of wasting weeks/months working it out for yourself – we have 8 full-time business advisors at The Small Business Academy, with years of experience across many skills and sectors, ranging from digital, to sales and marketing, manufacturing, importing, processes and systems, IT, HR, Law… and much more! We only charge £50 for an introductory session, so you can ‘try before you buy’

Larger budget (£1000+)

If you have a larger budget, you may be able to afford to hire someone to train you 1-2-1, or pay to outsource it to someone else who is already an expert.

Do your due diligence on the person or company you choose to work with, ask who their clients are, check their previous work and maybe even call their other clients and check they are happy with the service they received. Anyone can pretend to have worked with X business, and they rely on the fact you will never check!